I couldn't be happier when my hubby told me that I have the full rein to do up our entire empty new home. The home that I have in mind is comfy and cosy, one that allows the occupants to remove themselves from their hectic day and be fully relaxed. This should be our private sanctuary that each of us can retreat to at the end of the day. The world is really getting so overpopulated already. We really need a proper and peaceful home where we can wind down and recharge our batteries.
I think that home design should be, as far as possible, both user-friendly plus practical (Function) and pleasing to the eyes (Form).
A home design with good function will have an efficient layout in terms of clever usage of space and arrangement/design of furniture according to the layout and its users' living habits. The user experience should be pleasant and, if possible, effortless. In short, the home design should serve its intended purpose (or function) well.
Whereas for form, the end-design of the home should be aesthetically pleasing to the users. The chosen colours, design and materials for the walls, floorings, fittings, cupboard and counters should not only look great but also achieve its intended visual effect to the users. Example, if the home is designed to look airy and spacious, light or bright colours should be used, furniture can be hung on the walls and they should not block any natural sunlight coming in from the windows.
Do not give up one for another. A home design with great function (or practicality) may be easy to use but it will affect the overall user experience if it's in an awkward colour or an outdated design. Likewise, a home design that looks really great but is not user-friendly (impractical, e.g. needs high maintenance) may bring on unnecessary frustration and, in the long run, poor user experience.
Whereas for form, the end-design of the home should be aesthetically pleasing to the users. The chosen colours, design and materials for the walls, floorings, fittings, cupboard and counters should not only look great but also achieve its intended visual effect to the users. Example, if the home is designed to look airy and spacious, light or bright colours should be used, furniture can be hung on the walls and they should not block any natural sunlight coming in from the windows.
Do not give up one for another. A home design with great function (or practicality) may be easy to use but it will affect the overall user experience if it's in an awkward colour or an outdated design. Likewise, a home design that looks really great but is not user-friendly (impractical, e.g. needs high maintenance) may bring on unnecessary frustration and, in the long run, poor user experience.
Other than function and form, below are the things that I'll be looking out for, in the design of my new home. Many of them stem from the lessons that I've learnt, through the hard way from the renovations of my first home. Ain't gonna make the same mistakes again. Hope they'll be useful to you.
1. Try to find an interior designer who has at least a basic knowledge of feng shui. There's no point living in a fantastic looking home which you feel uncomfortable in. (For my basic feng shui tips, read here.)
2. If you're doing up stark white cabinets, do them in the same material/colour and preferably from the same source. Different ones may end up 'ageing' with different tones of white which can look unsightly. This advice came from hubby's friend who regretted mixing build in white cabinets with loose, store-bought white cabinets. If he had known, he would choose to build all his white cabinets from the same source.
3. Do up the window grilles before you move in! If you are space-starved with no gardens or balconies, the window grills is the perfect place to occasionally air and sun your pillows or stuffed toys. More importantly, installing the window grills will take away the fear that your child may accidentally fall off the window. In Singapore, where most of the people live in high-rise buildings, there are news of kids falling to their death from their flat almost every year. This is a serious matter. If you haven't done it, do it NOW. Better be late than be sorry.
4. If you are a clean freak like me, make sure the design and products are easy to clean and maintain. Avoid hard-to-reach nooks and crannies, easily-stained materials and other homewares that needs frequent hands-on care. For this, I will not be installing doors with carvings. And I'm also not going to buy tables with grooves or gaps - especially for the dining table. Can't imagine removing food debris from the grooves after every meal.
5. Finding the local interior design scene getting predictable and common? Can't seem to find the exact design theme that you want?
For interior inspirations, check out the home designs from other countries, especially those with similar home size. For land-scarce Singapore, we can look to our counterparts in Hong Kong and Japan and even Taiwan for some fresh ideas. Check them out either through online interior design websites (Hey! Cheese photography, super love the gorgeous homes in this Taiwan website), online magazine (try ISSUU.com), new condominium launches, or even hotel booking websites e.g. agoda.com or booking.com. Yes, I am crazy like this ;) . Note: check out kid's theme park hotels for kid's room design ideas. And get snapshots of design photos that you love and show them to your interior designer or contractor in due course.
6. Decide on the main colours that you'll be using for your entire home (usually 3 main colours). If the colours are uncoordinated, it can look very messy and the occupants may not feel at ease. Remember to ask yourself, "Can I live with this every single day?"
7. Do not build an opened walk-in wardrobe near the entrance of the bathroom. The moisture from the bathroom will turn your clothes mouldy and smelly and no amount of moisture absorber works. Get them closed up with doors or build them in another room. I will definitely not build a walk-in wardrobe again because the opened shelves get so dusty everyday. I do not want to clean my wardrobe all the time. They are supposed to serve me, not the other way round.
8. Stick floor paddings to legs of movable furniture to reduce dragging and to protect both the furniture and the floorings while doing housework. Your neighbour downstairs and upstairs will thank you for being considerate too.
9. If you can't decide on a design theme, keep the house design minimal and stick to neutral colours first. You can always spruce it up to your favourite theme with changeable and add-on items like pillows, curtains, furniture, paintings, pictures and other decorative homewares.
10. Never ever construct aircon pipes underneath a built-in wooden platform or structure. The condensation of the pipings will create an enclosed niche area for termites to thrive (wood + moisture = termites. Learnt this the hard way). Also, build the aircon pipings near the ceilings as opposed to near the floor as they directly take up floor space! A great bane for the already space-starved flats.
11. A sequel to the previous point (see no. 11): I will not use any laminate flooring again. The good thing about laminates which I did for my bedroom flooring and platform bed is that it is cosy, comfortable and quite cheap. But as years passed, they started to warp/expand/contract in all places and has created lots of unevenness and gaps. It's also tiring to keep the surface dry at all times - not easy with kids, on rainy days and when mopping the floor. It's so tiring! Feels like I'm servicing the floor all the time. Not worth it. More so, I don't want to meet anymore flying termites ever again!
12. Do not place your computer screens directly opposite windows. It'll reflect the sunlight from the windows and cause a distracting glare.
13. I will not use pebbles in my house ever again. They are difficult to clean - I have to spray-wash, and the stones fall out all the time. They also attracted a lot of insects. I did it for the bathroom floor and it attracted hundreds of tiny insects within days and I have to remove and redo the whole flooring immediately!
14. I will not want a balcony again. I enjoyed it for the first few years but later, when all the cleaning took its toll on my blistering hands, I begin to find it a real hassle to clean the balcony floor, its furniture, and the full height glass sliding doors. You can consider if you have a maid.
1. Try to find an interior designer who has at least a basic knowledge of feng shui. There's no point living in a fantastic looking home which you feel uncomfortable in. (For my basic feng shui tips, read here.)
2. If you're doing up stark white cabinets, do them in the same material/colour and preferably from the same source. Different ones may end up 'ageing' with different tones of white which can look unsightly. This advice came from hubby's friend who regretted mixing build in white cabinets with loose, store-bought white cabinets. If he had known, he would choose to build all his white cabinets from the same source.
3. Do up the window grilles before you move in! If you are space-starved with no gardens or balconies, the window grills is the perfect place to occasionally air and sun your pillows or stuffed toys. More importantly, installing the window grills will take away the fear that your child may accidentally fall off the window. In Singapore, where most of the people live in high-rise buildings, there are news of kids falling to their death from their flat almost every year. This is a serious matter. If you haven't done it, do it NOW. Better be late than be sorry.
4. If you are a clean freak like me, make sure the design and products are easy to clean and maintain. Avoid hard-to-reach nooks and crannies, easily-stained materials and other homewares that needs frequent hands-on care. For this, I will not be installing doors with carvings. And I'm also not going to buy tables with grooves or gaps - especially for the dining table. Can't imagine removing food debris from the grooves after every meal.
 |
| It's a chore to clean the dust off these door grooves all the time. Both front and back! |
5. Finding the local interior design scene getting predictable and common? Can't seem to find the exact design theme that you want?
For interior inspirations, check out the home designs from other countries, especially those with similar home size. For land-scarce Singapore, we can look to our counterparts in Hong Kong and Japan and even Taiwan for some fresh ideas. Check them out either through online interior design websites (Hey! Cheese photography, super love the gorgeous homes in this Taiwan website), online magazine (try ISSUU.com), new condominium launches, or even hotel booking websites e.g. agoda.com or booking.com. Yes, I am crazy like this ;) . Note: check out kid's theme park hotels for kid's room design ideas. And get snapshots of design photos that you love and show them to your interior designer or contractor in due course.
6. Decide on the main colours that you'll be using for your entire home (usually 3 main colours). If the colours are uncoordinated, it can look very messy and the occupants may not feel at ease. Remember to ask yourself, "Can I live with this every single day?"
7. Do not build an opened walk-in wardrobe near the entrance of the bathroom. The moisture from the bathroom will turn your clothes mouldy and smelly and no amount of moisture absorber works. Get them closed up with doors or build them in another room. I will definitely not build a walk-in wardrobe again because the opened shelves get so dusty everyday. I do not want to clean my wardrobe all the time. They are supposed to serve me, not the other way round.
8. Stick floor paddings to legs of movable furniture to reduce dragging and to protect both the furniture and the floorings while doing housework. Your neighbour downstairs and upstairs will thank you for being considerate too.
9. If you can't decide on a design theme, keep the house design minimal and stick to neutral colours first. You can always spruce it up to your favourite theme with changeable and add-on items like pillows, curtains, furniture, paintings, pictures and other decorative homewares.
10. Never ever construct aircon pipes underneath a built-in wooden platform or structure. The condensation of the pipings will create an enclosed niche area for termites to thrive (wood + moisture = termites. Learnt this the hard way). Also, build the aircon pipings near the ceilings as opposed to near the floor as they directly take up floor space! A great bane for the already space-starved flats.
11. A sequel to the previous point (see no. 11): I will not use any laminate flooring again. The good thing about laminates which I did for my bedroom flooring and platform bed is that it is cosy, comfortable and quite cheap. But as years passed, they started to warp/expand/contract in all places and has created lots of unevenness and gaps. It's also tiring to keep the surface dry at all times - not easy with kids, on rainy days and when mopping the floor. It's so tiring! Feels like I'm servicing the floor all the time. Not worth it. More so, I don't want to meet anymore flying termites ever again!
 |
| My headaches... Above: Cheap and ugly link between laminates and tiles. Below: Gaps of skirtings that termites can live in. |
12. Do not place your computer screens directly opposite windows. It'll reflect the sunlight from the windows and cause a distracting glare.
13. I will not use pebbles in my house ever again. They are difficult to clean - I have to spray-wash, and the stones fall out all the time. They also attracted a lot of insects. I did it for the bathroom floor and it attracted hundreds of tiny insects within days and I have to remove and redo the whole flooring immediately!
14. I will not want a balcony again. I enjoyed it for the first few years but later, when all the cleaning took its toll on my blistering hands, I begin to find it a real hassle to clean the balcony floor, its furniture, and the full height glass sliding doors. You can consider if you have a maid.
Before you countersign on the final blueprint of your home renovation, take a step back and visualise you and your family members actually living in the new home. What do you all usually do together at home? What are some of your more prominent habits or lifestyle? Do you have a collection of things that need proper storage? E.g. Bags, shoes, hats, camera equipments, or toys? And based on these, have you fully utilised each precious room that you have? If you have pets, where will they hang out/eat/sleep? If your family loves reading, is there a cosy place to do just that? Or is there at least an area that you can house the family's book collection?
"In the end, we should create a house that fits our lifestyle and works for us. Not the other way round."